12 pound gold nugget find means big payday for Australian man

BALLARAT, Australia — An amateur gold prospector found a gold nugget that weighs a whopping 12 pounds on Wednesday.

The name of the prospector and exact location of the find remain secret, but the local news website the Courier reported the man took the giant nugget to the Ballarat Mining Exchange Gold Shop to confirm his find.

It’s in southeastern Australia not far from Melbourne and Sydney.

The mega-nugget is worth more than $500,000.

Shop owner Cordell Kent told the Courier the prospector used a $6,000 metal detector to find the gold, which he dug up from two feet below the land surface.

Kent told the news site Adelaide Now that the region remains in a gold rush that started in 1851… that’s an unbelievable 162 years. Just last July, someone found a gold nugget weighing eight pounds.

A short video of the gold nugget was posted on YouTube by Troy Aurum. His Facebook page says he’s self-employed and he lives in Ballarat.